I´ve got eggs coocking!

It has been well over 15 years since I tried to hatch snake-egg the last time, but I am going to give it a go this year again. Got eggs from one of the most beautiful Cloubrids in Europe, the Leopardsnake Zamenis situla. This species is known to have rather small numbers of eggs in their clutches, usually about 2-5 eggs/clutch. This female is really large, about 120 centimeters compared to the normal size around 100 centimeters, and the clutchsize for her 2 years in a row is 10 eggs! The incubationtime is somewhere between 60 – 80 days, depending on the temperature.

Some pictures:

Egg-sizes ranging from the largest: 45 x 25 mm´s to the smallest: 37 x 27 mm´s.

 

Z. situla eggs.

The proud mom..

I also got some eggs from Aegean four-lined snake, Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri, witch is the smaller islandform. The inland form reaches about 180 centimeters, but this subspecies becomes only about 120 – 130 centimeters in length.

I didn´t expect any eggs from the pair I keep, as I thought that they needed another year of growing first. As they are quite shy, I don´t see them more then about 10 seconds a week, I was surprised to see that the female was really fat. I put in a box with Sphagnum-moss in their terrarium, and it took only about an hour for her to enter the box and start digging around.

Since it was quite late, I decided to leave her for the night, and lookid in the box when I got home from work the following afternoon. And what do you know.. 4 eggs in the moss.

Some pictures:

Eggsize ranging from the largest at 77 x 22 mm´s to the smallest at 60 x 25 mm´s.

Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri eggs.

The female, photographed late 2008.

The incubator.

Incubator.

 

More info and updates on Terrarium Morbidum forum (nonvenomous snakes section).

The awaitening…

The viperbabys that I am waiting for..

But I really think that they are coming soon because the notorious feeder a.k.a the yellowish V. a. ammodytes refused food at yesterdays feeding. A good sign..
She still looks like she ate recently, and didn´t  take a dump since May..
I am going to enjoy to see what the small ones will look like, as the mom is yellowish / orangeish in colours and the male is the “Zokadelic”-male. I really, really hope that there is at least one female that looks “Zokadelic” too, so I can keep it for future breedings. Will probably keep a male or two too, if they are “Zokadelic”´s.

The gravid V. renardi female is hissing loudly and striking at me everytime I show my face now, but she did take a little mouse yesterday to my surprise.. She´s also very large now..
I have to keep at least 2.2 from these too, as the parents are very old, at least 10 years old, possible allmost 15.
As far as I know, nobody have had young ones from this species in Sweden before. Can I be the first??
Good that I have lots of small crickets at home now, to feed the small ones with.

I have been trying to take decent pictures of the both gravid females, but it´s really hard, as they don´t show themselves as much as they usually do. Will continue trying though..

This week, or next, they will all arrive I think… Looking in the terrariums every day, up to three times now..

The eggs from the Z. situla..

You might remember this story: http://terrariummorbidum.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/409/

It will not happend again this year! The large female is clearly gravid, and shed her skin last week, so there should be eggs this week or in the beginning of next. I am just hoping that there is some lifes inside the eggs..

I have already prepared a hatchingmachine for the eggs, and trimmed it to keep the temperature at ~25,5 degrees C. Of course there will be some fluctuations in the temperature, but I am hoping that it will stay around 24,0 – 26,5 degrees C.
I am using a “Scherpner´s”-modell of hatcher ( wet-hatcher with a couple of wallbricks at the bottom with an eggbox ontop ) , and a immersion heater <– right word? for aquariums. The hatcher is in my garage, just to keep the risk of overheating the hatcher and the eggs at a minimum, as the garage don´t have windows and is a bit cooler then my little reptilehouse.

Would really be fun to hatch some eggs now, as I haven´t done it for years..

Second European Bombina Song Contest

Following the success of the 2007 “European Bombina Song Contest”, the LIFE-Bombina project (LIFE 04 NAT/DE/000028) has announced a second edition for 2009.

On the 10th May, live recordings of different populations of B. bombina will be made in ponds in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Latvia and presented on the project website, where the public will be able to vote for thir favourite ‘songs’ (in a similar fashion to the popular, televised Eurovision Song Contest). Voting will possible either on the website and also on-site.

A sophisticated technical set up had to be developed in order to allow the recording and transfer of sound files from the festival locations.

The 2007 event received widespread media coverage in the participating countries, as well as elsewhere in Europe, and was reported on the main national TV news in Sweden, which won the first round.

More details on the LIFE-Bombina website. Listen to the Participants of the 2007 edition.

From Environment-LIFE

Rattlers, Peepers & Snappers.

Rattlers, Peepers & Snappers is for anyone interested in the biology, natural history, or the 52 fascinating amphibians & reptiles in New England.

Vince Franke teamed up with Jim Andrews, of the VT Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, to create individual segments on all the species that breed in New England as well as reptile and amphibian field adventures hosted by a variety of New England experts. The DVD was designed and laid out for a variety of audiences and ages. We’ve received great feedback from professionals, teachers, naturalists and their kids!

PLAY excerpt from field adventure

• 3 hours of programs
• Frog calls of every species
• Quizzes, facts sheets, resource pages and much more

The two educational programs incorporate a series of field trips with local experts from across New England as well as highlighting current research projects with University graduate students from the University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts, Berkshire Community College, and the University of Connecticut. Topics include the identification, natural history, and conservation of all the snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, and salamanders of New England.

From Peregrine Productions

First herptile find for the season!

 

I found my first ones of this season yeasterday.

When I go to work, I pass a little place where I have been thinking: “There might be an Adder there”. So, yesterday I walked there, it´s just 750 meters from work, to have a look.. Didn´t think that I was going to find anything, just wanted to check the place out..

After just a few minutes, I saw 2 V. berus basking, immediatley threwed myself on the ground with the camera.. Took a few pictures, and walked a little more. Only after 25 meters or so, I found another one.

A good day, in deed!

A couple of the pictures I took..

Basking V. berus, Common adder.

 

Basking V. berus, Common adder.

 

Link to a thread in my forum, regarding spring-findings.

Pictures on how snakeskin is collected for the trade. WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES!

 WARNING! GRAPHIC PICTURES!

The following message is made of an well known herpetologist, I am in this post just quoting it. / Miqe

“I was sent the images by a concerned Sri Lankan herpetologist but I would imagine the images originate from Indonesia (Sumatra and/or Kalimantan, Borneo), possibly Malaysia, (Peninsula or Sarawak, Borneo, but less likely)
I have not examined them closely, and have no wish to do so, but an IUCN report for 1989 shows that Indonesia exported 556,000 retic python skins, and 71,000 blood and short-tail python skins.
Most of these snakes pass through specialised snake slaughter houses in Sumatra and Borneo. See O’Shea 2007 Pythons and Boas of the World New Holland pp.30-31.

The snakes are killed primarily for skins but also harvested for meat and gall bladders to supply the ethnic Chinese populations.
Despite possible claims, these are not captive bred for the market, who could economically raise a python to adult size and then slaughter it for its skin, meat and bile, and expect to improve on their investment.

Pythons are often skinned alive, the same for crocodiles, apparently the skin is easier to remove.

Also of interest would be:
Erdelen, W. 1998 Conservation, Trade and Sustainable Use of Lizards and Snakes in Indonesia. Mertensiella (supplement 9) : xxiii+144pp.
Groombridge, B. & R.Luxmoore 1991 Pythons in South-East Asia: A review of distribution, status and trade in three selected species. CITES, Cambridge, UK. 127pp.”

This slaughter is just for us humans to get this:

STOP THIS NOW!!

Mating frogs get waterside hotel

Mating frogs are vulnerable to predators such as foxes and herons

What is claimed to be Britain’s first “frog hotel” is to be created on the banks of the Water of Leith.

The two-tier structure, made from wood and recycled materials, will be placed alongside a pond in Redhall Walled Garden in Edinburgh.

It is designed to protect mating frogs, which are vulnerable to predators such as foxes and herons.

The project aims to encourage breeding amphibians and highlight the work volunteers do for the environment.

Robert Henderson, Scottish co-ordinator for the CSV Action Earth campaign, said the hotel would be a beehive structure.

“At ground level is what’s called the Compost Cafe”, he said.

“Then there’s a ramp up to a more protected area where frogs can hibernate in the winter.”

From BBC

Lizard she-males survive longer

Augrabies Flat Lizard ’she-males’ can

The Augrabies Flat Lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi), a star of Sir David Attenborough’s recent series Life in Cold Blood, adds another twist to its tale. A team of South African and Australian researchers have discovered that some males of this dramatically coloured lizard mimic females during early maturity and thereby avoid the costs of broadcasting their masculinity.

As juveniles, all males look like females before gradually developing extravagant adult male coloration at the onset of sexual maturity. These young males are most vulnerable to aggressive adult male rivals when these first tell-tale signs of masculinity begin to develop and adults are quick to capitalise on a soft target by chasing and sometimes biting these young males.

Assoc. Prof. Whiting pointed out that “by delaying the onset of colour to a more convenient period, these males (termed she-males) are making the best of a bad situation”. An immediate advantage is freedom of movement in the normally treacherous zones which make up the territories of highly aggressive males that already have extensive fighting experience. At the same time, these female mimics are able to court the myriad of females that share the territorial male’s residence.

The authors of this study (Assoc. Prof. Martin Whiting of the University of the Witwatersrand; Dr. Jonathan Webb of the University of Sydney; and Assoc. Prof. Scott Keogh of the Australian National University) also tested whether she-males are able to mimic the chemical ‘signature’ of females.

In a clever experiment performed in the wild, they removed all pheromones and skin lipids that might signal gender and relabelled a group of females and she-males with either male or female scent, before presenting them to typical adult males. Males use their tongues to sample chemical scent and responded by courting she-males labeled as females, but not she-males labeled as males. “Males are fooled by looks, but not by scent” said Dr. Webb.

She-males are able to maintain this deception by staying one step ahead of a prying male, and thereby avoiding a nosey tongue that might give the game away.  Assoc. Prof. Keogh said that “young transvestite males appear to have a dual advantage: the avoidance of potentially dangerous bouts with dominant males and access to normally inaccessible females”.

From Science Alert

Researcher Finds Tailless Lizards Lose Agility

When in a predator’s grips, many lizards drop their tails to escape. But what price do they pay for freedom? A team led by biology professor Gary Gillis of Mount Holyoke College found the lizards were compromised: They could no longer jump without tumbling backwards, making it difficult to land safely when jumping between branches.

Among nature’s more interesting wonders is the ability of many lizard species to escape their predators. When caught in a vulnerable position, they simply drop their tails, leaving the twitching body part to distract the predator as they scamper to safety.

But, says Gary Gillis, a biology professor at Mount Holyoke College, the lizards lose significant mobility and agility in return for this life-saving natural escape mechanism.

Up to 50 percent of some lizard populations seem to have traded part of their tails in exchange for escape, according to Gillis. While the tails typically grow back in three to six months, Gillis wondered how the loss might impact a branch-hopping, tree-dwelling lizard’s mobility and ability to survive in the interim. Teaming up with undergraduate student Lauren Bonvini, he began recording lizard leaps to observe how well the reptiles coped without their tails. The results are being published February 13 in The Journal of Experimental Biology (http://jeb.biologists.org/). Constructing a jumping arena from boxes and fine sandpaper, Gillis and Bonvini gently encouraged arboreal Anolis carolinensis (anole) lizards to launch themselves from an 11-centimeter-high platform while filming the animals’ jumps. The lizards performed well, launching themselves by pushing off with their back feet and landing gracefully, covering distances ranging from 14.9 to 29.9 centimeters. But how well would the animals perform without their tails? After holding the lizards’ tails to encourage them to drop them, just as they would with a predator, Bonvini then persuaded the tailless reptiles to jump while Gillis filmed them. As soon as the first animal took to the air, Gillis knew something was different. “It looked weird,” he said. “The animals became blurred as they jumped.” Replaying the animal’s jump in slow motion, the team could see that it was tumbling backwards, out of control, as its tail stump flailed. Filming other tailless anoles, four backflipped out of control, although two others seemed to manage their trajectories better. Teaming up with Duncan Irschick of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to analyze the reptiles’ leaps, Gillis could see that everything about the tailless lizards’ take-off was exactly the same as it had been before they lost the appendage – until they left the jump stage. The lizards then began flipping backwards by more than 30 degrees; some tumbled so far that they landed on their backs. The team also realized that when the lizards with whole tails took off, they raised the base of their tails as the rest of the appendage trailed along the ground, as if it was somehow stabilizing the take-off. “If jumping and landing are important for lizards, they are clearly compromised after losing their tails. Coordinated landing on a branch is out of the question when spinning backwards,” said Gillis. Escaping lizards pay a significant ecological cost for their life-saving quick-release system, he concluded. So how do the lizards use their tails to ensure a safe touchdown? Gillis isn’t sure whether they push down with their tails at take-off to prevent themselves from spinning, or whether the trailing tail passively stabilizes the animal’s departure. He is continuing his research to determine how lizards adjust to life without their tails, with differential degrees of tail loss, and after the tails have grown back.

Related Links:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/misc/profile/ggillis.shtml
http://jeb.biologists.org

Research video is available.

IF REPORTING ON THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://jeb.biologists.org

Full text of the article is available ON REQUEST. To obtain a copy contact Kathryn Knight, The Journal Of Experimental Biology, Cambridge, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1223 425525, or email kathryn@biologists.com

From innovations report

Toad crossings mapped on Google Earth

Hundreds of toad crossings across the UK have been mapped on Google Earth in a bid to cut the number killed by motorists.

Froglife, which helps the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, has mapped 700 crossings using satellite technology.

It is hoped the satellite map will help conservationists and volunteers find out more about where amphibians are killed on roads on their migration to breeding ponds in spring.

The new software will help members of the public find out where frogs and toads cross local roads, as well as whether a “crossing” is active.

They will also be able to use it to find out where they can help with volunteer “toad patrols”, as well as updating Froglife’s records and reporting new toad crossings.

Conservationists at Froglife also hope the Froglife Google Earth application will be useful for the planning sector, and will allow highways officials to find out more about amphibian populations around the UK’s roads.

Toad numbers have declined in many areas of England, thought to be due to the effect of road traffic during the breeding season and loss of breeding ponds.

It is also thought the common toad, which was listed as a threatened species in 2007, suffers dangers of high kerbs which steer them towards drains where they are trapped and die.

Jules Howard, from Froglife, said: “Google Earth software is allowing wildlife experts to use new creative ways to communicate important conservation issues to an increasingly techno-savvy public.

“We’re delighted that more people can get involved in the Toads on Roads campaign by using this free software.”

She said last year 36 new toad crossing sites were registered, and 35,183 amphibians were carried across UK roads by volunteer “toad patrollers” in 2008.

From Telegraph.co.uk